''Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.''
The quote above summarizes the whole article, so you can go ahead and skip the reading.
Here I was looking for a job, for the first time in my life, this happened back in 2011 when I was fresh out of college and I was dedicated full time sending resumes. Everything was working out perfectly, I was getting interviews from several companies. Because I was new in this process and I didn't know how much should I ask for a salary, I asked several people (family, friends) to give me advice on this topic.
I remember clearly, all the answers that I got that were basically the same : "When you are fresh out of college, you should go for a low salary to get the job, gather experience for some time, and then you can get raises or move to another job where you are paid more accordingly, so you should ask for $X quantity of money". This is what from now on I will define as common advice, the advice that you are given by the majority of people that surrounds your life about any topic.
So here I was... at my brand-new job. I asked for the salary that I got as a recommendation from common advice, and I was given exactly that amount. I started with all the energy that a recent graduate can have in his first job, very motivated, giving the extra mile, and I was indeed very happy... until I realized something that slapped in the face, made me feel unworthy and crushed all my motivation. I was the lowest paid employee in the whole department. My coworkers that also were recent graduates were getting paid about 30 % more than me (ignoring the fact that I came from a better college). I don't think any reader can realize how miserable I felt.
When you are in this kind of situation and don't know how to proceed or what to do to avoid feeling so miserable, you will be tempted to ask for advice, so I did it... again, for the second time in less than six months, I received common advice: ''You should ignore the fact that even the dog across the street earns more than you, you should stay there and gather experience for some time, even that you feel miserable and worthless. It's your first job and you should be grateful for having one if you quit your resume will look bad''.
This all happened in my first month at the job, and after receiving this advice I felt very bad, that was not how I wanted the situation to be, for me it wasn't fair that I was receiving less salary for performing the same activities that people that were just as or less prepared than me were performing. Something was wrong with this advice, I was feeling so bad and depressed that I came to the realization that my body was trying to tell me something... was trying to tell me that I shouldn't accept reality as is, I should make it as I wanted.
I took the first step in ignoring the common advice by focusing all my energies in looking for a new job, I didn't mind if I fucked up my first job or if my resume would look bad. I hated the situation, the reality and I was committed to changing it. I got two interviews, I asked for more salary (the same that my coworkers were earning), got good feedback from the interview, but they told me that the process was going to be slow and that I should wait.
In the meantime, something happened in the place where I worked. Three of my coworkers resigned in a row because they were getting a better salary in another company! That meant they were considering themselves as being a low paid employee, so because of that reason they were moving to another company (In my interior I thought, so if they are low paid, HOW SHOULD I CONSIDER MYSELF???).
By this time, I had just had enough, and I quit, I presented my resignation letter as the 4th guy leaving the company in the same week (I knew that for a single department this can be seen as a problem, and they were needing the people really bad). Different from the other coworkers that quit, I didn't have a job offer with a better salary, but I didn't care, I was feeling very bad. I did this with a special intention, so I told them: I'm the only one that you can save from the ones that are resigning. I would stay at this company and cancel the other offer (I didn't have one) if I get a 50% raise.
I was bluffing, but I knew the stakes were on my side because it was a new department that was requiring people really bad, and if the things went wrong and lost the job, I just didn't care. I was asked to wait a week for an answer and I agreed. At the end of the week, I was informed that I was getting the 50% raise. Normally this could have taken years.
I knew that a luck factor was involved, but I saw the opportunity, I took the risk and I got the benefit. All of this by ignoring the common advice. Some people can say that this move was not ethical, but I didn't care, for me, the company was not being ethical by underpaying me. Also if I didn't do that move, I was going to feel miserable, unworthy a depressed all my time in that place, and that is not how things should be.
This is a good example of how I hacked the reality and I discover the truth of the common advice: If you want a better life, you shouldn't follow it!
Thanks for the reading and stay tuned for part number two.
